OTTAWA – It’s a bit past the 150-day decision promise, but the CRTC’s decision on local telephone market forbearance will be out this afternoon.
The release and a conference call are scheduled for 4 p.m. Look for cartt.ca reports shortly thereafter.
Spurred by a request made by Aliant to deregulate its eastern markets due to the severe customer losses at the hands of local cable firm EastLink (which top 30% in some areas), the Commission hosted a week-long public hearing in September, as reported extensively by cartt.ca.
Two of the key issues all are waiting on are: the threshold…
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OTTAWA – In what’s got to be a first, a Canadian group is actually calling for a bigger CRTC.
The 150,000-member Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada said Wednesday that the CRTC "needs a wider scope and greater resources in order to properly protect the public interest in the rapidly changing world of media and information technology."
The union proposed its new CRTC mandate at the same time as it filed its opposition to by Bell Canada Enterprises plan to cede control of Bell Globemedia (home of CTV and the Globe and Mail, among other assets) to the…
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OTTAWA – Governor-General Michaelle Jean mentioned the Environmental Protection Act, the Federal Accountability Act, the Canada Health Act, the Bank Act and the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Despite much recent rumblings and grumblings on the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act, the short Federal Government Throne Speech on Tuesday didn’t mention either one – or even allude to the industry at all.
For ACTRA, the performers union, this was too much to bear. "We were pleased to hear in the throne speech acknowledgement of the importance of creative expression in a democratic society, but we were hoping that the government would signal…
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SHOULD BROADCASTERS RECEIVE a wholesale fee for their signals from BDUs?
That will be one of the key questions for the industry and the Commission to answer in the coming months because while the CRTC’s radio review is well under way – with public hearings in May – we can likely expect a TV policy review to begin late this year with hearings in 2007, sources told www.cartt.ca this week.
The desire by broadcasters to be paid a fee for carriage, or for retransmission, is about as old as the cable industry itself. In the 1950s, broadcasters called nascent…
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GATINEAU – The Commission granted licenses to a dozen of new category two digital specialty channels.
They are (with descriptions where needed and owners):
Soccer Television (Telelatino)
RCS Television (Rugby, cricket and soccer, Telelatino)
Equestrian Planet (Olympian Films)
Équestre Planète (Olympian Films)
Cookie Jar Educational TV (Cookie Jar Entertainment – formerly Cinar)
Télévision éducative Cookie Jar (Cookie Jar Entertainment)
ATN – Asian Sports Network (Asian Television Networks)
ATN – Cricket Channel I (ATN).
ATN – Cricket Channel II (ATN)
National Lacrosse Network (Leland Klassen)
Smart Living Television (save the earth, P. Wayne Soper)
The Horse Channel (Bhupinder Bola)
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – Yesterday, the CRTC approved a license for a new Toronto radio station serving the city’s gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered community.
Its spoken work programming, which will include news, publicity for daily events, and open line programs, will reflect the diverse interests, concerns and activities of the GLBT community. This project has been in the works for a decade, says the company, which is backed by Evanov Radio – CIAO-AM530, CIDC-FM (Z103.5), CKDX-FM (FOXY 88.5) in Toronto; CKHZ-FM (Z103.5 Halifax), and CJWL-FM (The Jewel Ottawa).
Rainbow Radio will also feature a mix of Top 40 music, pop,…
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BUFFALO – American Arab/Muslim channel Bridges TV will soon launch in Canada.
The company announced this week that Rogers Cable will begin carrying it this spring and has also recently transitioned from a premium pay channel in the U.S. to basic cable on several cable and satellite systems there.
The year-old Buffalo, N.Y.-based cable channel was added to the list of eligible satellite services by the Commission in December.
The changes to its carriage and its launch in Canada "comes at a time when Middle Eastern and South Asian communities around the world are in the spotlight," says the company. "Most recently,…
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OTTAWA – Who needs to be tethered to a home phone anymore when the phone can be tethered to you wherever you are?
The proportion of Canadian households relying only on cell phones for their communications instead of land line phones has more than doubled in just over two years, according to new data from the Statistics Canada’s Residential Telephone Service Survey.
As of December 2005, just over 615,000 households, or 4.8% of the total, reported having only a cell phone, compared with just 1.9% in mid-2003. Households in the two westernmost provinces, British Columbia and Alberta, are leading…
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GATINEAU – Thanks to complaints that some channels up for addition to the eligible satellite list in Canada offer nothing but Communist propaganda, the CRTC has re-opened a public proceeding to gather additional evidence.
Rogers Cable has faced complaints and some small protests after sponsoring the addition of nine new Chinese channels to the eligible satellite list for digital distribution in Canada.
The now-defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association had made the original application (Rogers Cable took over sponsorship after the organization closed) and described the channels as general interest fare. "Based on supporting information provided by the CCTA, the…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC wants to know more about account stacking before it renders a ruling in a dispute between cable, broadcasters and satellite companies and has called for comments on the issue.
Account stacking is where a BDU treats two (or more, as the complaint mentioned below contends) residences as a single subscription. So, for example, if a Star Choice customer has a dish at his home and cottage, he pays just one monthly fee.
In a complaint filed with the Commission in December and reported on only by cartt.ca here. Videotron has asked the CRTC to…
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